


Oz's Tea Party

by AristocatSlippers



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 02:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12546740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AristocatSlippers/pseuds/AristocatSlippers
Summary: There is - between death and reincarnation - a one hundred year cycle that all spend in the abyss. It doesn't feel as long as that though. Since it was fixed, the abyss is a rather beautiful place, full of warmth. No one really minds being there, instead they're enjoying the tea party that they missed.





	Oz's Tea Party

True to Glen Baskerville’s word, Oz finds the abyss as it was before Lacie extraordinarily beautiful. He doesn’t think he’ll ever grow tired of its golden light. It’s a shame that time passes so quickly there, his hundred year cycle will be up in what feels like only days - weeks at most. And so he thinks he’ll have to make the most of it. **  
**

Not everyone is there - no Sharon or Liam or Gil or Ada or Vincent or Leo - he almost wishes they were because he’d have loved them to be at his tea party. Maybe it wouldn’t quite have been fair to them. Still, there are lots of Oz’s friends attending. Out of all of them, Elliot is by far the loudest. 

He grabs Oz by the shirt and holds him up to look him in the eye, (the kid is short, what is he supposed to do?)

“It is evidently summer down here, so please explain to me why you have decided to use winter teas?!” Elliot all but yells at him.

Oz laughs, disentangling himself from Elliot’s strong grip, “We’re using them because people like them, Ell-i-ot.” 

Elliot shakes his head in disagreement, “That’s not a good enough reason… You have to have appropriate tea for the occasion! Do you know anything about being a nobleman?” 

Oz shrugs, “Not really. I kind of didn’t get the time before, well stuff happened.” He was kind of cast into the abyss before he could really learn anything, after all. Although it was quite different from what it is now; no more broken toy boxes. 

Elliot splutters for a moment, he’d almost forgotten all of that, “Well- well!” Clearing his throat, he slowly regains his composure, “Anyway, we should have green teas and the like, instead you decided to go with Earl Grey and Darjeeling! It’s unacceptable!”  

“There’s not really any seasons down here, what’s wrong with winter tea? We could use any tea we want!” Oz begins listing off the seasons and why he likes their different types of tea, “We could have spring teas because they’re refreshing and slightly sweet.” 

He counts on his fingers every point of his list “Iced green summer teas because they’re light and cool. White and oolong autumn teas because they’re the perfect mix between summer and winter. Black winter teas are great too! They warm you up with cinnamon and spices. We chose winter because they won the vote.” Oz keeps it to himself that only Alice, Break and Elliot had actually voted - unfortunately for Elliot they won against his green tea.

“Why don’t we use both? Would that satisfy you?” 

“That would defeat the point!” Elliot snaps at him, he tries not to be too harsh - it is only tea, after all. 

“Well then I guess we’re sticking with winter.” Oz smiles mock-sweetly at Elliot. 

Elliot glares at Oz with disdain over his tea choices; there’s not really anything he can do to change it though, and he’s already given Oz a piece of his mind so he stomps off. He always argues with Oz over the most ridiculous things, maybe he sort of finds it fun. He can’t quite decide whether Leo would have punched him under the pretense of correcting his master’s behaviour or if he’d have just ignored them with his head stuck in a book.

Perhaps Leo would have just laughed at the thought of a Nightray and a Vessalius getting along so well. Quite a shame that he wouldn’t get to see it. Elliot thinks that he might as well enjoy the tea party even though the tea may not have been up to standard. It’s beautiful today and the sound of such genuine laughter isn’t one he commonly gets to hear. He revels in it, running off to join in. 

Oz watches him fondly, Elliot looks much lighter than he used to. Cheshire sidles up to him, rubbing his face against his legs. The bell on his collar chimes quietly. Oz bends down to stroke Alyss’s beloved pet; Cheshire purrs loudly when Oz scratches at his ears. Alyss runs up to them, hair bouncing behind her and chasing her precious cat back to him. 

Behind her, Alice is a little slower, but still making her way over. Cheshire is scooped up in Alyss’s arms when Alice links hers with his. “You can’t just stay all the way over here Oz. It’s your tea party!” 

Alyss agrees, “All your friends are here, you should go and have fun with them!” She wanders off back to the table of food. It’s kind of strange to her, being surrounded by people like this. They include her so easily though, jesting and joking around, it’s like she’s known them her entire life. 

Beside him Alice bounces excitedly on the balls of her feet, “Come on Oz, let’s go eat all the nice meat that you made!” She starts almost dragging him, smiling up at him with sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks, “I might even save some for you!”

Oz laughs, “Well, given that I made it, it would be mean if you didn’t.” 

She waves her finger in his face, “You can’t expect that when you made such good meat!” Alice pulls out a chair, settling in next to Break. Oz pulls out his own chair, quietly sipping his tea as Alice ravages the meat supply and Break does the same to every cake he baked. Since he had made them all, Oz had expected to at least get one; it seems all the food will be gone before everyone gets the chance to try it.

“You know Oz-kun, you actually make pretty good food, I’m surprised.” Break says. 

Alice looks almost offended, “Of course he does, Clown. He’s my property after all!” 

“Still, it doesn’t match up to Gilbert’s - he was an amazing cook.” The three of them sigh wistfully, Gil’s food was always something to look forward to. Pity that he hadn’t been there to make any - if he had it would truly have been gone in an instant.

“I wish Gil were here, I miss him already,” Oz says, there’s a sad note to his voice. He never did get to spend enough time with Gil - too many things got in the way.

Alice nods, agreeing with him, “Seaweed Head said he’d wait for us Oz - you won’t have to miss him for long!” Alice does her best to remind him of that, to cheer him up. She couldn’t stand to see Oz feeling so low again. 

Break distracts both of them, diverting the subject subtly, “Your taste and presentation leaves something to be desired compared to his, Oz-kun.” 

Despite the difference in quality, Break finishes off the cakes just as eagerly. Such a sweet tooth. Oz and Alice both tilt their heads in confusion, the off-hand comment about presentation causing it. “How do you know what the cakes look like? Aren’t you blind?” 

Break holds up a finger, “I was blind, down here I can see though,” his voice lowers just a little, “if Ojou-sama knew she’d probably force me to learn how to dance.” 

“Not to worry Break, I can teach you how to dance even if Sharon isn’t here to,” Lady Shelly whispers in his ear from behind.

Break doesn’t look surprised per se, but it’s clear on his face that he’d momentarily forgotten that she would be here. He twists in his seat to face her, grimace clear in his expression. Lady Shelly offers a hand to him, an invitation to dance with her. Break groans but takes it all the same, she nods over at someone else attending and they start playing an upbeat tune on their flute for them to dance along to.

Guiding gracefully, Lady Shelly takes the lead of their dance. She steps back and forth in time with the beat of the melody, easily avoiding Break’s awkward, clumsy missteps; one would think that he was actually aiming for her toes with how often he nearly crushes them. Oz and Alice giggle quietly. 

Lady Shelly murmurs quietly, her voice is as soft as silk, “You did a good job Break, taking care of my daughter.” 

He swallows the slight lump in his throat, he can’t say that he doesn’t wish he did a better job, “Thank you, but I can’t say I did. She wanted me to stay longer and that I couldn’t do.” 

“Don’t talk nonsense, no one could stay forever. You did a good job.” 

Break nods, there’s no arguing with Lady Shelly. 

Underneath the golden afternoon sun, Break and Lady Shelly are not the only gleeful dancers (though gleeful isn’t all too accurate for Break, apprehensive suits him far better). Oscar waltzes with his wife, twirling her round and round until she’s dizzy and giggling into his chest. For a moment they’re young again, young and carefree and happy. He trips, stumbling over the child playing at his feet. The child tugs on his trousers, quietly asking to be included. Oscar bends down, grabbing him up onto his shoulders. 

The boy looks like him, blond hair and green eyes but with the soft features of Oscar’s wife, he’s about three or four; twenty five years or so in the abyss seems it would only age you that much - maybe it would age you less and he just wanted to age that much. He’s a true Vessalius though, that can’t be doubted. Oscar and Oz had done their fair share of fawning and cooing when they first saw him. The child has them both wrapped around his pinky fingers. 

Oscar takes his wife back in his arms with his son still on his shoulders. The child digs his fingers into Oscar’s hair to hold on, Oscar winces slightly at the tugging then grins. His hands are firmly planted on his wife’s waist as they step in time to the music, right, forward, left, back, right, forward, left, back. Oscar holds his hand up, his wife’s own soft ones in his, he spins her. She almost bumps into Elliot but Oscar pulls her back to him just before she does. 

Slightly startled, Elliot’s attention snaps from his attempt to stroke the still-purring Cheshire. He ducks back down towards the cat, reaching out to stroke him. Something blocks the warmth of the sun from his back, casting a shadow over him. Elliot looks up to find Alyss looming over him. 

“I bet he’ll let you pet him if you dance with me,” her voice is almost a song, bubbling over with simple joy. 

Elliot straightens himself up, taking the hand she holds out toward him. Alyss leads him to the dance floor, surprising both of them when she actually dances well. It’s almost peaceful, dancing. How long had it even been since he last danced? 

Although Elliot would still rather say almost - if only for Rufus Barma’s untamed version of a dance. Waving one’s arms wildly and leaping around isn’t exactly a conventional dance. Especially not when it’s so out of time and style compared to the music. Elliot sighs. 

“What’s wrong?” Alyss asks him, suddenly unsure of whether he actually wanted to dance with her. 

He inclines his head in Barma’s direction, Alyss glances at him, raising a hand to her mouth to muffle her quiet laughter. It quickly turns to a scowl when Barma knocks into Oz. Oz goes flying - near enough - landing some feet away on his back. Although he props himself up on his elbows laughing, Alyss pulls away from Elliot.

She grabs Cheshire up to her chest and marches determinedly toward Barma. Her finger is pointed accusingly in his face, “How dare you hurt my precious black rabbit Oz! Get him Cheshire!” 

The cat starts clawing and hissing at Barma, taking swipes at his face with his front paws. Elliot strides up to them, takes the cat in his arms and tells it off. Cheshire stops scratching at Barma. Oz stands up, brushing himself down. 

Oz directs a beaming smile in Alyss’ direction, “It’s alright Alyss, why don’t we go explore? We haven’t done that yet.” 

Elliot nods his head, “I’ll come with you, it sounds like fun.” He pats his arm, offering it for Alyss to take. She links arms with him.

The three of them are about to set off as the child comes barrelling into Oz’s legs, Oscar’s son grins cheekily up at them, “I wanna explore too!” He bounces up, still clinging to his cousin’s leg. 

Oz laughs and takes his hand, “Okay then, let’s go!” 

Someone jostles into his other side, when Oz turns to see who it is he finds himself face to face with Alice. She doesn’t even have to say the words for him to know that she wants to tag along too.  

“Last one to the top of the hill is a rotten egg!”

They race up the hill, sprinting at full speed. Almost all of them are doubled over, panting and out of breath, by the time they make it even half way up the hill. Oz has taken to giving up and flinging himself down into the grass. It’s so much steeper than he’d first thought. It vaguely reminds him of his childhood spent running around with Gil and Ada. 

Alice stands triumphantly at the top, laughing proudly at herself and the weaklings who couldn’t even run up a little hill. She wasn’t going to be a rotten egg, not at all. Elliot, Oz, Alyss, Cheshire and Oscar’s son stumble up the hill eventually - after they’ve given up on the race. 

They’re not quite far enough away to not hear Rufus Barma in the distance. The man is shouting something about how he was such good ‘friends’ with Lady Sheryl, and when they look down from the top they find him running away from a rather terrifying- looking Duke Nightray. 

Over the other side of the hill is a small lake, surrounded by trees and rocks on some edges. There’s a wooden jetty with a small row boat tied to it using fraying rope. 

“Wow!” Oz’s cousin jumps excitedly in the air, “This has so many places to explore!” It looks to have a lot of hiding places too. 

“Why don’t we play hide and seek?” Alyss has a bit of a sparkle in her eyes when she suggests it. 

Everyone nods. 

“Okay, Alice is counting then! Everybody run and hide!” 

They all do just that as Alice turns her back to them, muttering “One, two, three…” 

Oz takes his cousin’s hand in his again with the others running behind them, he’d almost been shot back to when he was a kid - running around anywhere with Ada’s hand in his and Gilbert following. He really missed them. 

He leaves his cousin in a hiding place behind a rock, instructing him to stay there until Alice finds him. If he does, he’ll most definitely be the winner. 

“Alright! Alice will never find me here!” 

Once Oz knows he’s settled for sure he scrambles off to find his own hiding place. He’d always been good at climbing trees so he shimmies up one. Finding the thickest branch possible he tries to hide himself using its leaves; he hopes Alice won’t see him too easily. 

She takes a while to count. Not knowing what number she’s supposed to count to, Alice counts to two hundred before she gets completely and utterly bored. 

Oz has just about fallen asleep when he faintly hears her shout, “Ready or not, here I come!” 

He starts to snore. 

It’s warm when he wakes up - it’s always warm, never cold, here. Little specks of light seem to be dancing around Alice, Cheshire, Elliot and Alyss as they look for him.

They have their hands cupped around their mouths, shouting his name, “Oz where are you?!” 

“Come on, it’s been hours! You better not have fallen asleep, you’ll get sick!” Elliots yells out to him. 

Hours? He’d had such a good nap though. He laughs and moves into view, waving at them, “Sorry! I did fall asleep!” 

They all turn towards his voice, smiling at him. The speckled lights dancing around them dance more brightly then; he sees them dancing around his own hand as he waves too. It takes him a couple seconds to realise, but they seem to be fading. Him too. 

His cousin is the first to disappear, hours before any of them. He’d been gone before Oz even woke up.  A hundred year cycle didn’t last very long but he’d had such a wonderful tea party. His time with them had passed far too quickly. He climbs down the tree and hugs them all at once. The light around them all is almost blindingly bright now.

Elliot and Alyss are still hugging them, they’re together when they disappear, so Oz knows they’ll always be together. 

He really did love tea parties… Tea parties with them…

Alice squeezes Oz tightly, the pressure a welcome comfort. He hugs her back hard, until there’s no longer anyone in his arms and all he can see is that warm, white light. 

Just as Glen Baskerville had said, the abyss was extraordinarily beautiful. It felt like only days - weeks at most. He’s glad to have made the most of it. He wishes he could have spent more time there, or that everywhere was just as warm and peaceful as the abyss. But they’re all waiting now, Gil too, in a moment he’ll be back to them. 

Oz closed his eyes, like he was having the most wonderful dream. 


End file.
